Wednesday, 23 Mar
Mmmmm… Easter. I’m excited. This will be my second Easter with my lady love — and her family. We had a blast spending time together last Easter and last Thanksgiving, so we planned for me to return to her place this Easter! Today was my flight out to Baltimore. After my long bus ride over last Thanksgiving, I’m pretty determined to not take a bus to Baltimore again — if I can help it.
I was traveling JetBlue — oh my is JetBlue amazing — and in the JetBlue terminal, while waiting for my flight out, I saw a sign that caught my eye. I loved it so much I had to stop and take a picture for my “big sis” because she loves avocados to no end, despite having grown up on the East Coast. As it turns out, it was a sign for a popular East Coast chain deli/sandwich shop called Potbelly promoting adding avocados to their sandwiches. Ah if only I could obtain and send her the whole flyer itself!
After an hour or two’s flight, my lady love picked me up on the other side and quickly dropped me off at her house with her two adorable kitties before heading out to class. My, my how I’ve missed watching these two kitties go about their strange interactions. It’s funny to think that I miss living with them, considering I’ve never really lived with cats other than the few times I’ve stayed with my lady love. It’s oddly calming to just watch them roam about the house doing their thing.
Thurs, 24 Mar
Today was quite an adventure.
I had originally planned to go out to Washington, District of Columbia (D.C.) all day today and perchance spend some time with a friend who is temporarily living in the area. However, I woke up terribly groggy and not in the mood to go anywhere or do anything. I was pretty set on staying at home for the rest of the day and just relaxing, instead of stressing out over traveling around the national’s capital on my own worrying about pickpockets and whatnot.
Much to my surprise, my lovely lady friend came home earlier than I had expected her to. Originally, she was due to stay at work late to build up hours so she could spend with me tomorrow. As it turns out, her colleagues had urged her to go to D.C. with me for the day soon as they saw the weather report not looking very good for the rest of my stay in Baltimore. So, she took their advice, came home, and we drove out to the D.C. metro stop closest to us and took it into the city.
As soon as I stepped on that metro, I felt rather energised. In contrast with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) trains, these trains ran smoothly and quickly without too much screeching and noise of wear and rust on the tracks. Once in the city, I felt like I was in a different place: a place to explore, a place to get lost, and — most importantly — a place to have fun.
At first, we couldn’t think of many things to do as she had already been to D.C. several times. So we started our day — or should I say afternoon — in D.C. off with a visit to the Tidal Basin to see the infamous cherry blossoms. It started as simple walk around the hustle and bustle of the promotional tents where they were selling gifts and memorabilia. We were thinking about buying some ourselves when we sighted people paddle boating around the basin. We thought it might be a fun idea — and she had never done it — so we waited in line for a seemingly long time — it actually took a little less than an hour. I have to say, it was totally worth the wait and for a surprisingly small amount of money ($16 for a 2 passenger boat for one hour). We had great craic just trying to figure out how to steer the paddle boat with and/or against the current — and to avoid people.
After a fun hour of paddling around, we treated ourselves to some memorabilia at the tents and found out the tidal basin is associated with the U.S. National Parks Service. They had a map of the whole area and all the cherry blossom trees planted along the basin, each labelled by cultivar name.
Then, we decided to spend some time wandering around D.C. At one point, we decided to pop into a McDonald’s along our route of…getting lost. I was rather hungry and the Filet-O-Fish sandwich with Old Bay Seasoning tartar sauce, a D.C./Baltimore special, sounded like a wonderful idea at the moment. I have to say this is probably the best Filet-O-Fish I’ve ever had. The funniest part was the fact that I was more amused by the Old Bay sticker — which I ended up putting on my D.C. Metro card — than the actual, though scrumptious, sandwich itself.
Incidentally, in our subsequent meandering, we crossed paths with some elegant promotional avocados tied to sun umbrellas on a patio. As it turns out — you guessed it — it was a Potbelly! I debated asking them for one of the avocado signs, curious if they had extras laying around. However, I couldn’t muster up enough courage to do so, thus my lady love led the charge, walked into the store — with me trailing behind — and asked them for one. At first, the cashiers thought we meant an actual avocado and just gave us a strange look that said, “What a strange request, but, eh, sure we could give you a whole avocado.” When they finally realised what we were actually asking for, they were rather befuddled by the request and looked around for some extra promotional signs and items. Thankfully, they had some advertisement posters laying around to encourage people to add avocados to a sandwich and gave us 3-5 blank copies. Huzzah for the courage of my lady love!
What an adventure of a day, what a great date day with my valiant lady love. Sometimes I wish days like this could last forever.
Diverse Shades of Green 